TAMPA, Fla. — During the championship run of the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the man that was leading the charge had been dealing with a knee injury since almost the moment he signed to play in Tampa.
When Tom Brady spoke with the media during minicamp, he stressed that he had been dealing with the injury since April and knew it was something that was going to have to be taken care of.
“I had my knee surgery and that was about 15 weeks ago,” Brady told reporters. “And I’m really happy with my rehab process and there’s been great communication. Alex and I worked really hard at trying to get back to full speed to get what I need to do to improve. It’s been a good process of learning and I feel like I’m there now.”
During Wednesday’s media availability, Brady told reporters, “I feel really good. Every player deals with different things. I never really like to talk about injuries. I’m just a little bit old school in that way. You know, you deal with them and you just make the most of them. The good part is I’ll be able to commit a lot of time to other parts.”
Brady finished speaking about his knee with a little bit of a mischievous smirk, which is something that many Bucs fans picked up on. As if to say, “Yeah, we won the Super Bowl last year and now I’m playing on two good knees.”
For the Buccaneers, that means that not only do they have their entire team returning and not only do they have a Hall of Fame quarterback entering his second year in the offense plus a full, true offseason to work on their chemistry, but now that quarterback will be able to focus more on his game preparation rather than dealing with a knee issue.
The deeper we get into the offseason (and the more rapidly the new season approaches) the more we wonder, “Can this team really be more explosive, more dangerous than last year?”
It would appear that they absolutely can.
A healthy Brady, his full complement of weapons, including Antonio Brown, who will get the full slate of training camp to continue to become more familiar with the offense and his role, plus the influx of young, fresh talent, just continues to raise the level of optimism - and expectation - for the 2021 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That’s certainly something to smirk about.
For more on this story and for more on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, check out the Locked On Bucs Podcast.
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